Posts tagged ‘England’

I would give up chocolate for a year for these and pick off trash off the side off the freeway. Ok, not the last part, gross.

“We’ve come across a few exclusives by Tricker’s for select retailers and this brogue boot for Fall 2011. The espresso burnished brogue boots feature a Vibram wedge sole and Telason laces and are fitted with brass eyelets and a contrasting red pull loop at the back. There’s really not much else you could want from a winter boot that’s handmade in England by a company that’s been doing it right for ages.” (www.porhomme.com)

PJ, a special thanks to you for putting out a new album to get me through the year. There’s nothing like long train rides in the rain with PJ in your ear to help your thoughts and self reflection leap forward and out.

Who could have imagined that nearly two decades later, both artists would be releasing their eighth studio albums, in completely different ways but both with an enormous amount of critical acclaim? With the hype that comes with a new album, it could be that PJ Harvey’s Let England Shakeand Radiohead’s The King of Limbs offers an introduction to the music of two of the UK’s most consistently surprising and interesting artists.

In the pioneering spirit that comes with a new band to listen to, this feature would ask – if it could talk to you – that you put down your iPad, turn your Kindle to kindling, shove all distractions aside and listen without prejudice, not just to these new remarkable albums but to the entire back catalogue of PJ and Radiohead. Of course, many out there would already be familiar with the music, but even so, let’s use this as an opportunity of discovery and re-discovery.

PJ Harvey, Madonna-like in her ability to change her style, is one of the most innovative performers of her generation. It’s hard to over-exaggerate the impact Polly has had on a music industry with few genuinely powerful female figures, especially powerful figures that remain relevant. Signed to a major record label for all her career, she has used her mental fragility as a key tool in her armour and sex, religion, death and love form the themes for many of her tracks.

Harvey uses her sexuality as a way to gain attention in the press and accompanies her music with striking visual identities; initially all legs and hairy armpits, she seems to change her dress sense in tandem with her moods. She’s currently rocking a selection of fetching gowns accessorised by equally fetching head dresses, extending her Victorian-themed look from ‘White Chalk’. The sombre look perfectly complements the sorrowful mood of Let England Shake, interested as it is in death and the futility of war. READ MORE